An orange trash bag printed with the face of a jack-o’-lantern has won a Good Design Special Award in Japan in the category of Community Developed. Designed by Dentsu, the plastic bags are meant to encourage revelers to clean up the streets after Halloween festivities, a holiday that draws thousands of people—and a lot of trash—to Tokyo.
Instead of making cleanup feel like a chore, these fun bags add a little cheer to the group effort. Last year, 550 volunteers participated in collecting garbage in the Roppongi neighborhood of the city. As the jack-o’-lanterns fill up and get thrown into heaps, they resemble a patch of pumpkins as opposed to mere bags of rubbish.
Now there’s a ghoulishly brilliant idea: Trash collection masquerading as urban-decorating, however fleeting.
The Good Design Awards are hosted by the Japan Institute for Design Promotion, a public interest foundation. Its first iteration, the Good Design Selection System (or G Roughly 1200 designs are recognized every year in a variety of categories.
Via: Designboom